SCHOOL BOARD, COMMISSION SEEK BETTER COMMUNICATION

BOCA RATON -- Too many issues are missed and too much money is wasted because Palm Beach County's School Board members and county commissioners do not communicate with each other, members of both bodies agreed on Wednesday.

In an effort to keep the situation from repeating itself as it has so many times in the past, they agreed to set up a joint watchdog committee to make sure the lines of communication are kept open. The boards met in a joint session at Florida Atlantic University.

"Our large list of mandates and our limited budgets almost force cooperation between us," County Administrator Jan Winters said. "Our common goal is to provide a better community."

Winters, along with Schools Superintendent Tom Mills and the chairmen of the School Board and commission, will meet monthly to see how well communications are proceeding and discuss issues of mutual interest.

"We need to have regular joint sessions to determine where we are," board member Arthur Anderson said.

But, commisioners said, communication is going to have to go further than that.

Noting the misunderstandings brought on by large increases in the School Board's budget and accompanying tax increases, commission members said they at least need to know how the board arrived at those increases.

"I went out and defended you," Commissioner Carol Roberts told board members. "But I didn't understand what I defended you on."

At the very least, Commissioner Karen Marcus said, the board needs to send a representative to commission hearings on the tax rate to answer public complaints.

"We need to be cognizant of the full picture," she said. "(At the last hearing), we couldn't answer questions from the public."

While agreeing they need to keep commissioners more informed, board members explained they have only limited flexibility in their budget decision-making.

"Two-thirds of our (spending) is controlled in Tallahassee," board member Bill Graham said.

Commissioners are at a loss to explain that, Roberts said, because they are not kept informed.

Commissioners also chided school officials for not communicating during planning of new schools.

"We want to be involved in the site selection process," Winters said, explaining that there have been cases in which the School Board has built a school on a less than ideal location for the county.

"Moving the site may have cost you a half-million dollars but it would have saved us $10 million in road costs," Winters said.

"We're just getting better at it," board member Hugh McMillan responded, noting the school system is in the process of putting together development plans for both the near future and the long run.